Unlike systematic philosophers, many of whom spend large swaths of time grappling with the fastidious organization of their ideas, pessimist philosopher E. M. Cioran gained a reputation for dismantling the so-called systematic utility of philosophy in favor of a fragmented, disintegrative one. As Eugene Thacker suggests in an interview entitled “The Sight of a Mangled Corpse,” paying consideration to Cioran necessitates a corollary counter-analysis of philosophy itself. Thus, he indicates that

there is something in Cioran’s work that mitigates against philosophy in the key of philosophy. That is a good definition of “pessimism” to me—the philosophy of the futility of philosophy. Cioran takes up this thread from other thinkers to be sure—Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Lichtenberg, Leopardi, Pascal, the French moralists. His writing itself works against the presuppositions of grand, systematic philosophy, composed as it is of fragments, aphorisms, stray thoughts. It is refreshing to read his work today, especially against the mania for systematicity in philosophy textbooks or the so-called speculative realist treatises. (2013, 386)

Thacker’s analysis continues, pointing out that there is ‘subtractive rigour to this kind of pessimism, what Nietzsche called the rigour of the “unfinished thought.” Cioran appeals to the secret voice inside all our heads when we read philosophy, or science, or psychology, or self-help: “Really? You really think we can just figure it all out?”’(Ibid)… [+]

European Journal of Science and Theology, June 2013, Vol.9, No.3, 95-104

Abstract: Emil Cioran spoke repeatedly about the injustice of birth, life and death. I chose these three themes of reflection to highlight any similarities between the Buddhist doctrine and Cioran’s philosophy. But is Cioran an authentic Buddhist? Despite the connections made between him and the Buddhist doctrine, fact recognized by Cioran himself at one time, the two visions share only the starting point – suffering – and debate on issues of birth, life and death. Cioran’s approach is also a highly stylized one, highly emotional, which shows a revolt and a hidden inner drama.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, a celebrated Romanian-French philosopher and aphorist was invited to speak in Zurich. He was introduced with rhetorical pomp and flattering comparisons to the likes of Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer. The speaker smiled, and immediately confounded his German interpreter by beginning his presentation with the words: ‘Mais je ne suis qu’un déconneur’ / ‘But I’m just a joker’.

A few of his critics might agree, but they would be wrong. For Emil Mihai Cioran is very much worthy of inclusion in the line of the great French and European moral philosophers and writers of maxims stretching back to Montaigne, Chamfort, Pascal and La Rochefoucauld.

Cioran was born in Rasinari, Romania, in April 1911. His father was a Greek Orthodox priest. Both facts were to be key in his later work. The writer’s Romanian origins are often taken as the source of a brooding, Romantic, fatalistic temperament while his father’s ecclesiastical calling finds echoes in his son’s unswerving preoccupation with themes of religion, sainthood and the dangers and joys of atheism… [+]

Profoundly influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism, the Romanian philosopher E.M. Cioran saw life as a quest for the void

The American literary critic Susan Sontag called him the French Nietzsche, John Updike dubbed him a frustrated monk, and Bernhard-Henri Lévy described him as a “Dandy of the void beside whom even the stoics appear as zealous bon vivants”. The Romanian philosopher and essayist E.M. Cioran (1911-1995) is considered one of the most critical thinkers and radical nihilists of the 20th century. In spite of his intense engagement with the Indian and Eastern philosophies and his deep admiration for them, Cioran is hardly known in this part of the world. To many who come in contact with his works he appears as an “aristocrat of doubt”, an “ungodly mystique”, a “reactionary” and a “cynic”. Cioran’s prose confronts the reader with an author who imposes an unmatched climate of cold apocalypse and scathing scepticism. In his book Anathemas and Admirations Cioran calls himself “The sceptic-on-duty of a decaying world”. He chose the essay and aphorism in particular to express himself as he was convinced that they perfectly captured the epigrammatic intensity of his thoughts: “The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words”… [+]

The American literary critic Susan Sontag called him the French Nietzsche, John Updike dubbed him a frustrated monk, and Bernhard-Henri Lévy described him as a “Dandy of the void beside whom even the stoics appear as zealous bon vivants”. The Romanian philosopher and essayist E.M. Cioran (1911-1995) is considered one of the most critical thinkers and radical nihilists of the 20th century. In spite of his intense engagement with the Indian and Eastern philosophies and his deep admiration for them, Cioran is hardly known in this part of the world. To many who come in contact with his works he appears as an “aristocrat of doubt”, an “ungodly mystique”, a “reactionary” and a “cynic”. Cioran’s prose confronts the reader with an author who imposes an unmatched climate of cold apocalypse and scathing scepticism. In his book Anathemas and Admirations Cioran calls himself “The sceptic-on-duty of a decaying world”. He chose the essay and aphorism in particular to express himself as he was convinced that they perfectly captured the epigrammatic intensity of his thoughts: “The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words.”

Unconventional thinker

Cioran belongs to the tradition of French and especially German aphorists, like Lichtenberg, Novalis, and finally Nietzsche who dismissed outright the philosophy of Hegel. Cioran was an unconventional thinker, averse to academic philosophy like the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, whom he venerated as his master. Cioran was of the view that “the university has extirpated philosophy. In my opinion philosophy is not a subject matter of study. It should be lived and experienced. One should be able to philosophise on the streets. …An official philosophy? A career as philosopher? No, please.”

The title of his first book, written in French, A Short History of Decay, tersely summarises the whole body of his work. Actually, Cioran knew only one fundamental problem: How can one bear life and oneself. “There are no other tasks tougher than this. Conclusive answers do not exist. Everyone has to solve this problem to a considerable extent for oneself”. Suicide is a recurrent motif in his works. “I don’t support suicide, but I support the idea of suicide”, he writes. And he also said many a time that without this liberating idea, he might indeed very well have committed suicide. But he also said that many of his readers came to him to tell him they would have committed suicide if they hadn’t read his work.

After studying philosophy at the University of Bucharest Cioran went to Berlin as a Humboldt Scholar and studied Husserl and Heidegger. During his stay he became an admirer of Hitler. Like Heidegger, he later distanced himself from Hitler’s movement and attributed the initial fascination to the hastiness of youth. In 1939 he went to Paris on a scholarship offered by the Institut Français of Bucharest but did not complete his dissertation on Henri Bergson. Paris became his permanent domicile until his death.

Cioran is a keen stylist and a master of French prose whose texts have found a place in French school books. He had a love-hate relationship with the French language. He maintained that French was the most precise language; maybe this was the reason why French seemed to him at the same time the only language in which one cannot pray.

Indian Philosophy

“Fortunately, I am engrossed in Hindu and Chinese philosophy”, he writes. “What peace! The truth lies there, if it is allowed, to use such a term”. Cioran’s engagement with Buddhism, which as a religion came closer to his world view, is well known. Very few know, however, that Hinduism also played a crucial role in his thinking and that he often turned to Hindu spiritual texts. In his rare interviews, he repeatedly expressed his thoughts on Hinduism and its seminal meaning for his world of ideas: “I consider Hinduism to be the profoundest of all the religions … The great systems are Hindu philosophy, then the Greek philosophy and the German philosophy. The basic advantage of the Hindu philosophy is: In India the philosopher is compelled to practise his philosophy.” It is not just an intellectual exercise. The philosophers of the East are certainly not intellectual charlatans and professors: “Philosophy is not a profession. It is inextricably intertwined with their life.”

Through his intense engagement with the Vedas, Upanishads and Mahayana sutras Cioran’s idea of the delusion of existence stood vindicated. In the true Far-eastern tradition, Cioran does not attach any significance to history: “The negation of history is in conclusion the Hindu philosophy: The action is considered meaningless and futile. Only the cessation of time counts. When one really ponders upon this, one should cease to act and function. One should throw oneself on the floor and weep.”

Cioran, unlike many other European thinkers of the 20 {+t} {+h} century, tries to explore Western and Eastern philosophies in a unified fashion. He searches and discovers links and parallels between Hinduism and the Catholic mystics like Saint Teresa of Avila or the German, Meister Eckhart, who according to Cioran was the profoundest thinker of the Occident, as his search for truth went beyond the conception of God and culminated in a total void: “Meister Eckhart is actually a thinker who could very well have been born in India, too”.

Cioran is right from the beginning quite unequivocal that thinking in its real sense cannot be and should not be abstract, as thinking, philosophy and religion cannot be separated from real life. Moments of despair and ecstasy teach us the fundamental meaning of life and they are to be aspired to. Cioran termed this the philosophy of unique moments. In the depths of disillusionment lie sublime realisation, and the meaning of life is attained in the ecstasy of imperfection, he once observed. These kinds of observations characterise Cioran’s writing.

The most common accusation against Cioran is of contempt for human beings. He was also termed a misanthrope of the worst sort by some as he maintained that the best thing that could happen to humanity would be its downfall and disappearance. He was relentless in his search for indicators and evidence to corroborate his view that the apocalypse is imminent: the disquietude all round is an augury of doom. In ostensible progress, he saw nothing but a quest for collapse.